Should i just risk it all and become a sister

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I’ll absolutely pray for you. Taking a leap of faith can sometimes be scary. The Lord will catch you. 🙂

Have you talked to anyone about your vocation?
 
I’m pretty sure there’s a multi year process before you are ‘all in’, right?
 
today has been the first day i’ve mentioned it. i’m talking about it with my youth leader tomorrow for as long as i need to. i’m just taken aback and afraid but i’ve been listening to other sisters talking about taking their leap of faith and i’m worried i’m almost too inspired by them to give up my entire life like they did. it seems like a lottt of suffering especially from someone like me who deals with a lot of anxiety recently, but i feel worse when i lie around and try to ignore it.
 
You are doing the right thing by talking to other people. You should talk to your priest and contact your diocese vocation director. They will help you.

Pray and Don’t worry. Discernment is a long process. You will have time to figure out if you are truly being called to be a sister.

@(name removed by moderator)
@Cloisters
 
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You know you’ll have a loooong period of “trying it out” so to speak, before you go all in, right? It’s not like you’ll be asked to make a lifelong commitment on day one.
 
i know i know. it’s just the thought of even testing it seems so sudden and out of nowhere for me
 
Yours is a big question. I know somewhat of your concern.

I don’t know what the formation is for a consecrated religious. What is your “plan B” career alternative? Can you combine both plans at the same time?

privately, answer for yourself, what is the path of your spiritual growth? What do you see yourself doing in the consecrated life?

EWTN was a lifetime project for Rita Rizzo, Mother Angelica. I was not surprised that there was no succession planning for her replacement – another nun to take her place. In fact, there’s NO nun on EWTN at present, that I am aware of. Johnette Williams seems to be the only female with a lead role on EWTN.

Is it your plan to get an M.Div.? It seems like there’s plenty of room at the top for women on EWTN. There’s a need for diversity there, I believe. Look at EWTN over the next 10 to 15 years – who do they have in the wings to take over?
 
Many communities take a year or more before they allow you to ask to enter as a candidate. Then you are a beginner for 6 months and up to 2 years. Then novitiate of at least 1 and usually 2 years, Then at least 3 to 7 years in temporary vows. You have enough time to know what you want and are able to do before making a final decision with the community. They help you “find” your calling. You may find that you belong somewhere else after a short time or even after many years.
 
I’m concerned that you’re speaking about entering the convent using the language of fear and risk.

The road to the convent should be joyful anticipation, not like you’re being led to the gallows
 
Be patient. We tend to want to know our path like right now. It an take years. It took me two decades or so,
 
It is scary as it is presently unknown to you what it would be like for you to live as a sister. Most parents who are expecting their first baby will find it scary as well as they realise they will be responsible for raising a child into a mature adult that the world can lean on.

The only way to find out if you could see yourself living as a sister is to get to know some sisters and visit a convent or two for some days. You might not be called to the order of those sisters or to that convent but you will sense if it is at least possible.
 
According to Mother Angelica, you have to be in excellent health to become a sister. It’s not as easy as it looks from the outside.

My various health issues were my downfall. My heart was broken since I’d felt called from the age of six.

A dear friend, God bless her, suggested I look into becoming a Benedictine oblate. That is what I did. She recommended this website.

http://www.oblatespring.com/oblatespring0200oblate.htm

If for some reason, you find you aren’t able to become a sister, consider becoming an oblate. You will still be serving God but a little differently than you imagined.
 
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Sorry to be so late answering. The invitation to join the conversation was received late in the day (about 12 hours ago).

I can only back up what the others have said. I understand the sheer terror of such a call. I was attending “the Poor Man’s Harvard” when I received it. Also had a significant other. I came up with every excuse not to just get on a Greyhound and go see the place. They were up the road two or three hours.

Then, a few years later, when I drove to Toledo to photograph a Visitandine’s final profession, I stopped back by this particular monastery as they were closing. Sure enough, when I stepped on the grounds, there was that feeling of having arrived home. What a terrible loss! At least I had had the opportunity to make a vocation retreat with the Visitation, so I wasn’t entirely ignorant of how monasteries are conducted.

He could be calling you to teach you something, then have you leave and use that knowledge for something else. One never knows. We become His at baptism, so He will “lay His claim” in His own time.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/
 
You’ve not given your age. I believe there are Forum guidelines regarding minors. You’d really need to find a priest or sister who can begin spiritual direction with you there locally. If you’re young, then learning more about the Rules (Albertine; Augustine; Benedict, etc), would be helpful. Pray the rosary daily, and ask Our Lord and Our Lady to purify your intentions.

What, exactly, scares you about this?
 
Have you attended a “Come and See” weekend with an order that interests you?
 
You have our prayers.

However, please keep in mind that there is a reason why you first take temporary vows. I know two women who used to be member’s of St. Mother Theresa’s order (at least one of them actually met Mother). When it came time for them to make final vows, they didn’t and left the order.

But they are both still very holy people.

The discernment process and reason for the temporary vows is because no matter how much you pray on it, you need to “try it out” before finally knowing if the Religious life is for you.

God bless
 
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Some convents have mother/daughter retreats. Maybe one of those will help?
 
Do a retreat with an order you feel attracted to. They all have different gifts and scopes. Some are for older vocations, and some for younger. This is part of a discernmen process. And pray morning and evening for guidances.
 
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